Since the introduction of plywood panels to the construction industry, the power tool industry has been trying to find a way of effectively process them. Preexisting tools such as table saws and radial arm saws were not designed for cutting plywood panels. Table saws were often outfitted with makeshift extensions with generally unsatisfactory results. Later, the power tool industry developed a wide variety of table top extensions having various and sundry fences in order to support and process plywood. While some of these devices met with varying success, most proved to be only minor improvements to systems which were never designed to process plywood panels. Almost all of these devices without exception were cumbersome and required extensive space in order to be used.
One such device that was never meant to process plywood panels was the radial arm saw. Radial arm saws in particular are perhaps the worst device to attempt to cut plywood panels, these saws are designed to make small crosscuts, this attribute is evidenced by the support bridge which is at the heart of the radial arm saw design. The power saw portion of the radial arm saw is slidably hung from the support bridge and the travel distance of the saw is limited by length of the bridge. The bridge length is limited due to the bending moment placed on the support bridge by the weight of the saw. Hence the distance the saw can travel is also limited. A serious problem occurs when the radial arm saw is used to cut thin flat sections of plywood. The saw can pose a hazard to the user as well as those nearby because as the saw is extended to the outer most portion of the support bridge there is a tendency for the saw to vertically. This vertical motion adversely affects the cutting action of the saw, as the saw begins to cut the plywood any slight up or down motion may cause the saw to achieve a camming action with the plywood and move or even eject the plywood with sufficient force to cause injury to the operator or someone nearby. This camming action is often referred to in the art as a “kickout” and is commonly associated with the act of attempting to cut plywood with a radial arm saw.
The latest improvement to the radial arm saw is a tool commonly known as a sliding compound saw. Although an improvement over the original radial arm saw, the sliding compound saw suffers from the same problems as its predecessor when confronted with processing plywood panels. Limited capacity, and a tendency to cam on thin stock make the sliding compound saw an inappropriate choice for processing plywood.
A device known as a panel saw was developed for the specific purpose of cutting plywood panels. While panel saws addressed the issues of capacity and safety, panel saws were physically too large and too expensive to be put into practical use by the average carpenter or handyman. Although the panel saw does cut plywood panels, it is not designed to be versatile. The panel saw cannot do something as simple as making an accurate miter cuts.
Over time quick fixes to existing technology have been used in an attempt to process large plywood panels, in many cases these fixes consisted of straight edges or edge guides affixed to the previously mentioned tools. While straight edges and edge guides allowed these tools to cut a section of plywood they have the distinct drawback of excessive set up time. For each cut the user or operator must measure and clamp the straight edge in place.
Tables having power tools within them such as table saws, shaper tables, belt sanding tables and joining or planing tables are well known in the prior art. The use of a table mounted power tool is essential to accurate cutting, sanding, shaping and drilling of materials such as wood, plastic and metal. Typically, each type of power tool requires its own specially made table. For example, a circular saw is mounted into its own specific table to create a table saw; likewise, an electric router is mounted in its own special table to create a router or shaper table. Similarly, electric planers and electric belt sanders also have individual tables dedicated to the individual tool that they are designed for. Each of the tool tables is specific only to that tool that it is designed for. For example, a table saw will only accept a power circular saw to be fitted and mounted into it; the table saw will not allow a router to be mounted in its place. Similarly, a router table will accept only hand held routers, it will not accept circular saws or planers or sanders to be mounted in its place.
The typical modern woodshop has the drawback of limited space. To be versatile modern woodshops normally require several types of power tools and their associated power tool tables. These requirements expose several significant shortcomings in the designs of power tool tables. Because of their large size, power tool tables occupy up a significant amount of space in the woodshop. Similarly with regard to space, the power tool tables often require separate and yet even larger extensions in order for them to accommodate larger pieces of work material. These limitations quickly exhaust the already limited space of the modern woodshop.
Another problem with the average power tool table is that of transportability to a job site. It is often desirable and sometimes even essential to have the accuracy provided by a power tool table at the actual job site location where the work is being done. The difficulty lies in the transportation of the power tool tables to the job site. If, for instance, a job requires the use of a circular saw, a jig saw, a router, a planer, and a sander and their associated tables respectively, clearly, a large truck or other industrial vehicle would be required to move all of the aforesaid tools and their respective tables to the job site. The effort and logistics required to transport and set up these often unwieldy tool tables prohibits their use on the actual job site by otherwise competent craftsmen who do not have the equipment to move a set of tool tables to each job site that they travel to. This disadvantage contributes to a poor quality of workmanship. It is difficult for anyone who has ever worked on a job site to imagine one or even two individuals loading a vehicle with five or six different power tool tables to transport to one job site and then removing those same tables at the end of a days work.
Therefore, there is a need for an extendable woodworking system which functions with a variety of hand held power tools, is extendable to large plywood panels, is versatile enough to make numerous different types of cuts, and is easily transported.